Gerry Canavan, an assistant professor in the English department at Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI, shared his concerns about this new wave of e-learning with Higher Education Brief in this exclusive Q&A article. He said MOOCs are an ineffective medium for learning and that they de-skill and de-professionalize academia.

MOOCs have been recognized as a potential low-cost and effective way to prepare the large number of students that need remedial coursework before they can take college-level math and science. In this exclusive Q&A article, Robert Hoar, a math professor at the University of Wisconsin—La Crosse, discusses the role of MOOCs in academia and shares details about the successful math MOOC offered by the university.